Scotland's Craig Maltman made a fine start to his career on the Seniors Tour when he posted a one under par 71 to claim a share of first place at the Senior British Open Qualifying event at the Barassie Links in Kilmarnock.

The 50 year old from Eyemouth defied strong winds to finish tied with America's Doug Johnson and Irish amateur Liam MacNamara and to claim a place in the £1 million Senior British Open, presented by MasterCard, that starts over the Ailsa course at the Westin Turnberry Resort on Thursday.

Former Wimbledon doubles champion, America's Sherwood Stewart was another man who came through the gruelling Qualifying event at Barassie. The tennis star carded a level par 72 to tie with England's Graham Burroughs, Italy's Giuseppe Cali and America's Paul Parajeckas.

Another American, Doug Lacrosse, headed the qualifiers at the newly revamped Kintyre course at Turnberry.

The liquer store owner from Tampa, Florida, carded a fine four under par 67 to finish one shot ahead of Canada's Bill Hardwick and two in front of England's Martin Foster and Scotland's Bil Lockie and Willie Milne.

Two Americans. Kurt Cox and John Benda, qualified after carding 70s and they were joined in the main draw by Chris De Bruin, Craig Defoy, Jan Dorrenstein, Ross Metherell, Spike Smith, Jeff Van Wagenen, Manuel Velasco and Javier Viladomiu, who carded level par 71s and battled through a play-off.

A total of 31 golfers qualified for this week's championship. Among those who narrowly missed out was former Ryder Cup star, Peter Dawson, who was one of seven golfers to tie for 15th place at Barassie. He lost out in the subsequent play-off to America's Mike San Filippo.